However, it was challenged many times after, most immediately when President John Adams pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts in an attempt to quell public criticism of his administration.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the line “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” was famous for such lines as: “…were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

However, during his later years, Jefferson had almost nothing positive to say about freedom of speech at least as it regarded the form practiced by newspapers.

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/...

First I'd like to address your contention from a historical perspective. Then I'd like to look at what freedom, much less Christianity, has to do with Independence Day as celebrated in the United States of America. Finally, I would like to examine whether, in fact, this country has really done much good for freedom and the spread of Christianity in the world.

First, name another country that has done more. Rome.

The Roman Republic was instrumental in the spread of democracy around the world. The Roman Empire was critical to the spread of the Christian religion. Fundamental democratic political principals, such as the balance of powers, grew out the Athenian model of ancient Greece and the 450 years of Republican Rome. The spread of Christianity occurred during the last 150 years of Rome as the military dictators of the shrinking empire allowed and then embraced the growing religion in order to keep control of the people. The institutionalization of Christianity as the official religion took place in 380 AD. Ninety-four years later the empire ended with the abdication of Emperor Romulus Augustus in 476. But the association of the church with Roman history continues to this day.

But of course none of that has anything to do with American Independence Day. The day is a commemoration of the signing of a document on July 4, 1776 that contains many references to rights, but not to freedoms. It simply established that 13 colonies of Great Britain now considered themselves independent. The Constitution, which famously secured the “blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” wasn't adopted for 11 more years and only after a compromise that forced the phrase “all men are created equal” to not include black men.

The Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War weren't sparked by a desire for personal freedom, rather they resulted from economic and political disputes that included a lack of representation in British government. “Give me liberty or give me death,” has a great ring to it. But the war cry that lead up to the Boston tea party was: “No taxation without representation.”

Strictly speaking, July 4 doesn't mark US freedom but US independence. The terms are not entirely synonymous and, from a practical standpoint, freedom from England came well after independence was declared.

But none of that speaks to the role this country has played in either the spread of freedom or Christianity in the world. Undoubtedly, this has been a missionary nation for the organized Christian religion. I'm not sure its efforts have duplicated those of colonial Spain or England, but they have been significant. Yet as we were exporting this religion the faith in this country has been floundering. Fewer and fewer people attend churches, less and less define themselves as Christian.

In a nation with supposedly unparalleled freedom, Christianity is failing. In nations of appalling deprivations and/or restrictions, faith in Christ is blossoming. Should this country take credit for that or learn a lesson?

As for that other export, freedom, I'm not sure it ever fared well. This country has put an end to more democracies than it ever fostered. As just one example, learned of while traveling in Central American during college, the CIA sponsored the assassination of the elected president of Guatemala during the 1930s. Our government also supported the military dictatorship that replaced him.

Just in my life-time the US got into trouble for its support of dictatorships in Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The last example alone provides numerous instances of the thwarting of the democratic practice — from the rejection of the unification vote ending the French war to the ouster and assassination of popularly elected South Vietnamese leaders.

To be honest, the United States has never offered anything specifically political or governmental. It certainly wasn't shipping anything that looked consistently like freedom. What this country was selling was an economic system — capitalism — and any political philosophy that would oppose communism.

History shows that our leaders were willing to embrace and fully support leaders of shocking depravity if those leaders stood against communism and/or supported American business interests. The Guatemalan assassination came because the elected president enacted land reform that would have broken up Dole fruit plantations and distributed the land back to the people.

In one of the ugliest chapters of US history, leaders of this nation engaged in drug trafficking that helped create drug cartels in Columbia and involved the military dictator of Panama in order to raise money for the purchase of weapons to be used by an ousted dictator in Nicaragua and the religious leaders of Iran. It is sad irony that the Ayatollah, who had deposed our rapacious friend the Shah and taken 50 Americans hostage, was being supported against our former ally Saddam Hussein (who was also using American planes and tanks and bombs).

Bottom line, the US record on spreading freedom is spotty, at best, for the last hundred years. As for what this country has done with Christianity, I can only say that we are not a shinning example for the rest of the world. We may have played a major role in planting it elsewhere, but haven't done too well cultivating it here at home.

So while I try to avoid unhealthy legalism and don't entirely agree with Mr. Claiborne's positions, I do feel required to respond when faith and politics are mixed myopically. This country was not the first democracy and it may not be the best the world has ever seen. More pertinent, its record with fostering freedom elsewhere bears no boasting. Perhaps most important, neither the US philosophy nor practice of freedom mixes well with following Christ.

Enjoy the fireworks.

First, Paul tells us that our freedom in Christ is should be used so that we can become slaves. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another” Gal 5:13. This freedom is from sins such as the lust for power and riches. Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a slave for Christ. Christian freedom is a paradox in that it is always accompanied by slavery to Christ.

Second, you suggest above that the US “has done more for the freedom and the spread of Christianity” than any other nation. I suggest that America has done just the opposite. It has been shown over and over again throughout history that when Christianity is the majority religion Christianity itself suffers. The lack of persecution often leads to apathy. Currently Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds throughout Africa as well as China, two places where Christianity is opposed and persecuted.

I used to believe that patriotism or nationalism was compatible with Christianity, with the caveat that as long as our citizenship in the Kingdom was primary and the citizenship of the nation we lived in on earth was secondary——a sort of “dual citizenship,” if you will, with clear preference to the Kingdom. Sort of a “God, then country, sort of thinking. My hunch is that is where you stand. And I don't think that's such a bad position, really. I sympathize with your sentiments. I, too, and proud of what “America” has meant to the rest of the world historically. More on that below.

What does “celebrate America” actually mean? Does it mean the government of America? Except for the Constitution being an excellent document, I certainly don't celebrate what the government has historically done, with its wars, theft, and treatment of minorities. Does it mean I celebrate the people of America? I'm not so certain that celebrating people is a great idea, though I'm certainly proud of the fortitude and longsuffering of my fellow citizens.

As you said, there is much to be proud of, much to honor, and much to praise about America, just as there are things to be shameful about, things to apologize for, and things to reconsider about our history.

At the heart of this notion of nationalism/patriotism and Christian citizenship is identity. How am I defined? is the central question. Paul said our citizenship is heavenly, aka “not of this world.” I am defined by Jesus, not by my national citizenship. The Jews were very much about their identity as “God's people,” and I believe that is part of the carryover when Paul wrote that the Christians are a “holy nation, a royal priesthood” (sorry, dispensationalists!).

So I think you and I are more on the same line of thinking than you initially assumed from my comments. I hope that cleared things up a bit. I don't loathe Independence Day or our nation; I do loathe Earth Day, but that's a different story.

Yes, by all means, celebrate freedom whenever and wherever it graciously appears. But, what is wrong with celebrating America? Name another nation that has done more for freedom and the spread of Christianity. This self-loathing is a troublesome form of legalism as unhealthy as blind patriotism.

I wonder how many of this opinion avoid nationalism as represented in the 4th of July celebration while enthusiastically embracing Earth Day because it is the duty of every citizen of earth to honor and celebrate their home.

You aren't supposed to “Celebrate the 4th of July” on the 4th day of July in the USA; you re supposed to Celebrate Independence Day.

Because of being in a war zone (Vietnam – US Army) for a year and under attack at HQ a few times, I cannot celebrate the day with fireworks. I like the professional fireworks displays but, I have to have someone with me to help me stay calm.

By the way, I have participated in a sweat lodge ceremony sponsored by a church in Tulsa with Randy Woodley. I am a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

But, as you said, celebrating the specific act of our country becoming independent from Britain isn't antithetical to recognizing and celebrating our interdependence. Let's celebrate the birth of our country on the 4th of July and celebrate the interdependence of our communities on every day of the year.

There's this tendency among people who submit commentaries to Sojourners to want to turn every national holiday into a day to protest or a time to be reactionary. Some of the times, like this one, I understand what animates them. In others, like Randy Woodley's attempt to turn Thanksgiving into a day to protest the treatment of American Indians, I don't.